"The faster you go the idler you get"

"They said to me: Smile
And I smiled with my teeth showing
as in an advertisement.
And I smiled with my mouth open onto space
onto the afternoons of life
onto the nights of life
onto the faces of life.
Smile, young man. Freedom
will open its wings
with their weights
and their pendulums.
Let the pliers extract the shout
and the revolt.
The sirens will place all things in order.
And I smiled like a fish
with my pulverized mouth.
And I smiled! I smiled with the despair of the hour,
the hour of smiling.
And I smiled because of work
and because of life and death
and because of branches and foliage
and because of trees and rivers
and because of all the glories
and because of freedom the prostitute
and by smiling so much
I saw the vulgarity of the facile world.
HUMANITY HAS SCLEROSIS!
Smile, young man, smile,
for it is fitting for a young man to smile
and by smiling so much
I learned to confuse things and people
and to have a good memory of childhood
and of stupidity like a fruit I could not swallow

Ah, offshoot of the gods, offshoot of man,
stone cherub in a stone square:
smile at anchorites and scapegoats
for the great joke continues.
All days are Ash Wednesdays.
Laughter remains in a straitjacket
and the smile is born of the abominable.
Smile. Let nausea ensue
for nausea is sweet.

And I smile. I smile at the siren songs of Society
and at the absinthe
and at the incense
and at the hailstones of ordinary happiness.
I smile at the crooked and immense
wail of life,
at rattles
and salamanders
and lustral waters
and kitchen utensils
and silver services
and I feel my body swell with an abcess.
And then I guffaw. I guffaw like a bird
or a wild beast, simple, impious, and without feeling.
AND I SHAKE ALL FOUNDATIONS."
-Lindolf Bell

The title is a line by Jorge Mautner ... all from a book titled Brazilian Poetry, 1950-1980.